Several lily questions

[Bearb]

Next year I plan to increase my pond size by 4 or 5 times. I would like to spend the summer building up a supply of hardy plants to fill it. Right now my pond is small (approximately 130 gallons) so I need to be mindful of space. I wanted to try the lily in a cup method until I have more space for regular sized pots. Serendipitously my neighbor brought over 4 sections of tuber this weekend (they have been untouched for almost 10 years in his pond and they were absolutely out of control) he doesn’t know what they  are. These tubers are too large for me to pot up in my current pond. They have no sign of new growth yet and are just floating in my pond until I decide what to do. With this in mind I have the following questions:

1)   I read the article on lilies in Dixie cups, it referred to tropicals, will this work for hardies?
2)   Once roots and leaves form on the tubers, can I pinch them off and pot them in cups or do they need the tuber?
3)   Will they begin to root out while they are free floating, or do I need to “plant” them?
4)   I’m not totally sure they are lily (as opposed to lotus) can you tell the difference from the tuber (I have never seen a lotus).

Thank you for any advice!
 
Bryan

I particularly like dwarf lilies, so if anyone has extra this season. . .

[LeeAnne151]

The growth habits of hardy waterlilies and tropical waterlilies are different. The dixie cup method will not work for hardies. Their rhizomes grow horizontally. They don't form tubers.

You need to plant them, they should have growing points on them with tiny leaves and/or roots.

Lotus tubers are very skinny and Tinkster has posted a pic on another thread.

[Bearb]

Thanks LeeAnne, I suppose rhizome is the word I should have used (I don't know much about plants). They definitely do not look like the pictures in Tinkster's thread, These are cut to about 10 in lengths 2-3 inches in diameter with kind of a pineappley texture. When you say "they should have growing points on them with tiny leaves and/or roots." do you mean they should have them already, or they should develop? There really is no growth on the sections now (other than a few old stems), I was assuming they had yet to wake up. Are you saying they may not be viable divisions?

Do I need to plant them immediately or can they stay loose in the pond until I can get to it?

[PondmaninAL]

Bryan, remind me about mid Spring and I'll see if I can send you a N. minuta which is a dwarf tropical.

[Bearb]

Thanks Scott!!! Sorry, I am just now seeing this, not sure how I missed it. . .

So I have not yet planted these rhizomes, since there are no roots or leaves I couldn't tell which part to bury. . . I anchored them under water with some stones, but have still not seen any growth. My planted lily has two tiny leaves pushing up already, so I'm starting to worry that these are lost causes. Should I stick it out? Should I do something different?

[Esther]

I wonder how your friend knew where to cut them apart. I divide mine between where I see the tiny little plants protruding from the rhyzome, usually trying to leave at least two plants on a section. Sometimes your rhyzome will start a finger of growth away from the main one and that is easy to break off but usually only has one plant on it when it first starts. I was sent a huge one a long time ago that didn't have any noticeable growth on it. I also floated it in the pond for a while and finally gave up on it and tossed it.

 If you look in a catalog or go online to a water plant sales website, you'll see in the plant description what that plant/lily's growth habit is and what it needs as to soil depth or water depth. If it hints in any way it is invasive------avoid it like a plague. I just tore out gobs of stuff from my pond that had been planted bare root under rocks at the edge. I had a tightly tangled root mass that you wouldn't believe. And none of this stuff is supposed to be invasive. I think they liked my fish poop fertilizer.

[Bearb]

I'm not sure how/if he knew either (where to cut). I have only talked to him a couple of times before (he lives across the street and down a few houses) one day he just showed up with them. He was cleaning out his pond for the first time in years and (my guess) just loped off some large sections for me. This was before any growth started. I suppose they are not hurting anything if I keep them in a while longer. If I see signs of life, I can pot them up. It will be a nice experiment. would it be worth the effort of setting up some kind of shallow vessel filled with fertilized water? My rationale here would be shallow = warmer, and I don't want to add extra fertilizer to the entire pond while it is trying to wake up.

It would be nice if I could resurrect them for the new pond, so I'll keep my fingers crossed and an eye out for advice.

[Bearb]

Update:
Two of the rhizomes became soft and I threw them out. These were both from the same plant (if diameter is any indication). The smaller two are still firm. One is just showing signs of (what I think to be) life. At the very edge there is bulge that looks like it may be forming a growing tip.?. There is one narrow shoot of live plant tissue emerging. My other two hardy lilies have put up underwater leaves but no hint of forming surface leaves yet, so it is still early in the season for my pond.

I will try to keep this updated (good or bad) this summer. I hate reading old threads dealing with a question I have, only to have them peter out before I get closure. . .